Turning Point
by Mekina
Summary: Things on the team are rough. When a distress signal causes strife, who will pay the price? And how strong is Lance's connection to the two lions he's piloted?


Even with Lotor in power, the Galra empire was not going to fall quietly.

Allura had received a distress call from a planet under attack. Despite warnings from Lance and The Blade of Marmora, Shiro took the team into combat.

The terrain was cavernous and too tight for the Lions to maneuver efficiently. Since the team saw no signs of large battle vehicles, they went in on foot.

"I'm not getting any lifesign readings. Coran, have you been able to get anymore information from the anonymous message?"

"Negative, number five. And still no signs of life on the scanners."

The paladins were standing at the entrance to a set of caves.

"Let's split up."

"Yeah, go in to spooky caves alone, that doesn't sound like a recipe for disaster." Hunk cringed at his own words. "We don't even know what we're walking in to. Maybe Lance was right…."

"What if we went off in pairs?" Allura interrupted, not willing to get in to the fight. Again. "There are three caves."

"We're still not even. And that leaves the entrance and surface unprotected." As Pidge was speaking, the frown continued to get deeper on Shiro's face. Lance stood in the back quietly. He and Shiro had gotten in to it pretty badly that morning and Lance was still trying to figure out what was going on.

 _Flashback_

" _Paladins! We've received a distress call. Come quickly," Allura said over the intercom. The rest of the team filed in and sat in their respective seats silently. They'd been training all morning and Shiro had been…..more harsh than usual._

" _So where are we headed?" Shiro asked expectantly._

" _Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. The distress call has no information, the planet is not one our systems are familiar with, and from what I can tell, there are no inhabitants there or in the vicinity who would be able to contact us on this frequency."_

" _So it's a trap," Lance deadpanned._

" _What happened to Voltron answering EVERY call?"_

" _Shiro, just consider this for a moment. If this is a trap, we won't be able to answer ANY calls. Can we at least consider the options here?"_

" _We answer the call. End of story. Allura, how much time before we can get there?"_

" _Perhaps we should take Lance's counsel before we rush in to this situation blindly," Allura conceded diplomatically. "He has proven to have quite a grasp on these situations recently."_

" _We could contact the Blade and see if they have any intel on this planet," Hunk chimed in._

" _Hailing them now," Pidge responded quickly. She figured it would be better to NOT give Lance and Shiro time to argue if they could avoid it. And maybe Keith would be a friendly face for Shiro._

 _Kolivan and Keith popped up on the screen quickly. "I assume this is about the distress beacon. We picked up the same signal," the Blade leader started._

" _Yes. Our Altean systems have no information on that planet. Do you know of anything there?"_

" _Only that the planet is rough terrain, mostly caverns and tight canyons. Your lions would be unable to assist there. We also have no life sign readings from the drone we sent to that sector a short while ago."_

" _We think it's a trap," Keith continued from there. "We've gotten word that some of the generals are using unorthodox strategies to cause damage to rebels and allies of Voltron. This is most likely a trick to draw in small ships and destroy them."_

" _And what if it's not?" Shiro said angrily. "Are we just going to leave people stranded now?"_

" _It's possible to send a few scouts. It's likely that they'd be prepared for that, but the Blade could gain intel and get back to you about findings faster and more efficiently than Voltron could by dropping individuals and not taking a full ship."_

" _We appreciate the offer, Keith, but I'm not letting the possibility of danger deter us from saving innocent lives. Voltron is going." With that, Shiro shut off the transmission and turned back to the team. "Lets suit up and get ready to go in. We'll need to go in without lions unless we can find a safe place to land."_

" _Did you just listen to anything they said?!" Lance was frustrated. Shiro had been making more and more reckless calls, endangering the team and going off by himself._

" _It doesn't change the fact that people need our help!"_

" _No they don't! It's a TRAP. We have no reason to believe otherwise, and instead of accepting the logical help from the SPY AND INFILTRATION AGENCY, you want to fly us straight into enemy hands!"_

" _Last time I checked, I was the leader of this team. NOT you. Your arrogance and insubordination are harming this team. If you can't follow orders, maybe we'll find a paladin that CAN!"_

 _The entire room was silent as Lance stormed out of the room. Hunk and Pidge had tried to stay out of the line of fire, squeezing themselves behind their chairs as much as possible until the yelling stopped._

 _Once the words had sunk in, Hunk stood up and made his way out of the room, turning back to stare disappointedly at their leader. "That was cold, Shiro."_

 _Pidge followed, not looking at anyone. She couldn't look Shiro in the eye as she left. "I'll get Green ready," she mumbled, pushing her glasses up as she left._

 _End flashback_

"We'll split up. Lance and Hunk, you take the far right, Allura and Pidge take the left, and I'll take center."

Suddenly, the team heard the sound of a jetpack, and looked up to see a masked figure dropping in to the ravine with them. As soon as they landed, Pidge raced over and hugged them.

"Keith! How'd you talk Kolivan in to coming? It's so good to actually _see_ you. I mean, we see you on the screen a lot but it's not the same."

"I missed you, too, Pidge. Kolivan wanted intel. He wants to know what's going on and I volunteered." At this point, Keith looked up and nodded to Lance, who returned it with a small smile. Shiro scowled, having never moved from his previous spot.

"Fine, we'll have to do full debriefs back at the castle. Right now we need to move. Keith, you're with me. Move out."

The team followed orders and took their leave. Keith linked his comms with theirs and joined Shiro.

"How's everything at the castle?"

"Shhh, we need to be listening."

Keith watched Shiro out of the corner of his eye. Something was definitely off. He thought about the call he'd gotten from Lance. How Lance thought that Shiro wasn't himself. He begged Keith the come on this mission. To help him figure out what was wrong. Now that Keith was standing next to the man, he knew exactly why Lance was worried.

In another cave, Allura and Pidge were have no better luck finding anything.

"Do you think Shiro is okay?"

"I do not know. Lance is not wrong, his calls have gotten….erratic. I am concerned for both of them." Allura sighed. Guiding the team, and being a part of the team, were two very different things. Now that she was the Blue Paladin, she felt far more weight when the emotions were high in the team.

"Lance looked up to Shiro. I can't believe Shiro basically told him to leave!" Pidge yelled, kicking a stone that was in her path.

"We will get through this. I hope."

Hunk, tromping through the other cavern, was not as optimistic.

"So are we going to have to pick a side? Like, you know I'm on your side, but is this like a kickball team on the playground where you each pick two people, or is it like a divorce and there's a custody battle for all or nothing?"

"Listen, it's just a bump. We'll figure it out. Shiro's been through a lot, he's probably just stressed and I don't really know how to communicate with him. That's why I called Keith."

"Wait," Hunk said, spinning around. "YOU called Keith? Is that why he's here?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. I've kind of gotten into the habit of calling him and updating him on the team. After the big fight, I called him. I told him about it, and he agreed that something was up."

"Did you tell him everything? Like the thing Shiro said...at the end?"

"No." Lance narrowed his eyes. "And there's no point in dwelling on that. It was a fight. No big deal."

"Except it was," Hunk whispered, more to himself. He made a note to tell Keith about it. For some reason, it struck the Yellow Paladin as really important for Keith to know.

Just then, as if a switch had been flipped, Droids came at every squad.

Some melted from the walls, quite a new development, and others came running at the Paladins from both directions of the tunnel.

Everyone was fighting. Swords, guns, whips. All flying and fighting.

"It was a trap! It was definitely a trap!" Hunk yelled over the comms.

"Did you have droids literally coming out of the walls?" Pidge called back.

"Yes! Back to the rendezvous point!" Keith practically growled as he was fighting.

Hunk and Lance tried to clear a path back the way they came, but the enemy was a wall, pushing them further in.

A few robots started to surround them, making a wall in between the two. Separating them, the droids pushed them further in, eventually reaching a fork in the cave.

"Lance! Lance we need to stay together! Where are you?!"

"There are too many! I'm being pushed down this tunnel!"

"No!" Hunk tried to clear a path to his friend, but it seemed like the enemy had focused in on the blue paladin, herding him further and further from his friend, and managing to force Hunk to retreat around them, back towards the entrance.

This was so confusing. What was happening? Did the Galra only want Lance?

"Guys, tell me some good news," Hunk called to his team.

"Keith and I are back at the start. Seems like we had the easy tunnel."

"Allura and I are almost there. We left a few alive, but they're not following very quickly. I think I might have gotten some helpful readings about them, too."

"Hunk and I got separated. I'm being pushed further down a random tunnel, but I can see some daylight."

"How many are on you?" Keith tried to stay calm.

"Too many, and I can't keep them back much longer."

"We're on our way," Pidge said, just as she and Allura made it to the start.

"Wait, if we go after Lance, we'll all get trapped. We need to take a step back."

"Now you want to take a step back?!" Hunk yelled. His fury fueled him to follow the hoard of droids further down the tunnel, trying to thin the group from behind to help Lance.

"We need to get back to the ship and re-evaluate, or we're all going to get killed." Shiro sounded calm and controlled, but there was a hint of something in his voice that they couldn't peg.

"No."

"Keith…."

"I said no. I'm going after him. You are not MY leader."

Silence.

Keith waited only a tick before racing down the tunnel that Lance and Hunk had gone down. Pidge followed without a second thought. Allura looked at Shiro with pain and remorse.

"If the Paladins answer every call, that means we answer the call of our comrades. No exceptions." She sprinted off down the tunnel as well, bayard ready for whatever she met.

"Guys, I'm hit."

"We're on our way, just hold on!"

"I can't for much longer. I'm cornered in a…. Dead end. At least I'll see the sky when I die."

"You're not going to die!" Keith yelled, leaping over Hunk and slicing a path through as quickly as he could.

Lance really was cornered. He had hoped that with the sight of sunlight, maybe came some strategic options like large rocks to find shelter, or a higher place to snipe some shots. Neither were available.

Instead, he got a large, open space, no exits, and no way to climb out. He'd been shot more than once, though he wasn't keen on letting his team know how bad off he really was.

He kept firing shots, but when he got hit again, he fell to his knees, breathing heavily.

"Well guys, it's been a ride."

"Stop that Lance," Hunk responded. They were so close. They could see a little bit of light, barely making out that the tunnel ended.

"You know, I guess Shiro gets that new red paladin that he's been wanting," Lance chuckled. He was trying to make a joke.

"No way. I don't know what you're talking about, but I expect a full explanation. Which means you need to be ALIVE!" Keith took out more of the droids, sprinting to get to Lance.

"Guys…I wouldn't trade any of this. Tell my mom I died a hero." Lance screamed as he was hit again.

His teammates fought as hard as they could. Pidge would comment later that she had never seen Hunk so angry and focused on a battle. Allura would deny completely the tears streaming down her face as she dragged her whip across more and more of the droids in her way. Pidge just screamed as she fought, using her enemy's momentum to fling herself further into the fray.

It was hopeless. They could hear Lance panting, every few seconds gasping with another shot hitting his body.

Suddenly, a roar echoed through the chasm.

The Paladins raced to the end of the tunnel, arriving just in time to see Lance's savior.

None of them expected what they saw.

It was not just Red who had come to her Paladin's aid.

Blue roared even louder as she descended. The two lions barely fit in the space, but they crushed the droids under their feet, both surrounding the man who was now laying, unmoving, on the ground.

Keith raced to Lance, allowing the other three to follow as the lions demolished the rest of the fleet.

"Lance. Lance!" No response. "You do NOT get to die. Let's get him in Red. We have to get back to the ship!"

They worked quickly. As soon as they got back to the castle, they put Lance in a pod and waited.

Shiro was already on the bridge when they arrived.

Keith left the pod room only once. When he came back, he was carrying a passed-out Shiro. No one spoke as he put their leader in a pod.

It was only after a few hours had gone by, and Coran confirmed that Lance was healing up fine that the team felt like they could take a breath again.

"I think that Shiro is a clone," Keith finally said, breaking the silence.

Pidge furrowed her brow. "Has he always been one? Or…. is this one? How did they do it? He had all his memories! How do you clone memories?"

"I don't know all the science behind it," Keith responded. "The Blade has been intercepting messages for a few decophebes that mention the word, and one of our sources thinks that Haggar and the Druids are to blame. Seems they like that kind of stuff."

"So you're saying that literally any of us could be clones? I mean, if Shiro is a clone, who else could be?" Hunk looked around the room rapidly, half expecting another team member to admit they were a phony.

"It takes time. From the transmissions we've collected, it's likely that they need the subject alive and they use some technology to transfer their memories. But the one thing they have done that helps us, is they can't transfer emotions."

"How does that help us?" Allura was still exhausted from the fight, unable to fully believe what she was hearing.

"It means that while memories are intact, emotions are not. That's why Shiro has been acting different. He has no connection to this team, and therefore no investment in his specific teammates."

"Well at least that explains why he's been so mean lately. What do we do know?" Pidge fiddled with her bayard, glancing up every so often to look at the two pods holding some of her dearest friends.

"I think we need Lance. He's the one who figured it out. He's been updating me on things and he's the reason I connected the two." As Keith said this, Hunk and Pidge shared a look. If the situation was different, they knew they'd be teasing Keith about it. Maybe later.

Allura stood up, a weary look on her face. "For now, we rest. We will keep Shiro in the pod until we know more. We will search once we have recovered. And then we save our friends."


End file.
